The northern checkpoints: the occupation continues to gnaw at reality like a rat

Place:

'Anin

Barta'a-Reihan

Tura-Shaked

Observers:

Hagar D.M. (Photographs) Neta G. (Report) Marcia L. Translation

Jul-26-2023

Morning

A'nin Checkpoint: The Wall, the Separation Barrier, Takeover by Force, You Name It

Photo:

Hagar Dror

Aanin checkpoint: a bulldozer in the service of the occupation

Photo:

Hagar Dror

06:00 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, Upper Parking Lot

Many workers and transportation vehicles wait in the upper parking lot and by the sides of the road, and more and more gather to leave from the terminal. It seemed to us that we had never seen so many people go up from the sleeve info-icon (the enclosed, roofed passage to and from the terminal) at the same time. A lot of them complain that this morning, and in previous mornings, there is again heavy crowding at the entrance to the transit shed (see the report from 24.07.2023) despite the opening at 04:00. The buffet at the exit to the terminal is open. A few buy coffee and pastry. Someone told us that he arrived at 05:00 and crossed the checkpoint only around 06:30. It appears that at this hour, there is less pressure. Among those who go through the checkpoint, there are only three women. Only one person crossed in the opposite direction—to the West Bank.

07:00 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint

This checkpoint opens more or less on time (but at a later hour for those exiting for work at the Shahak industrial area). One woman crosses to the Seamline Zone and after about 10 minutes, a few men, residents of Tura and Akraba, who work in the Seamline Zone. A very few cars cross in two directions. A large truck, loaded with concrete slabs to build the wall, travel on the security road. A bulldozer is placed opposite Tura. Written on it is the message that it is for the installation of the barrier.

07:30 – Anin Checkpoint

We arrived at the hour we knew the checkpoint would open (06:50) but it appears that the hour has changed and the checkpoint is closed. The terrible wall hides everything. Because of the wall, we don’t see the people waiting. A call to an old acquaintance, M., from Anin, clarifies that it opens at about 07:20. The trash dumpster in the area of the checkpoint is still overflowing.

07:30 – We return to Anin

The checkpoint is already open. Many people already cross and wait at the intersection or walk along the sides of the road, to the intersection. The old gate is broken and thrown in a ditch on the side. We passed it and walked in the direction of the wall, but an officer, a lieutenant, approached us and politely clarified that this is still the checkpoint area, and we don’t have permission to enter. According to him, artillery soldiers have already guarded the checkpoint for half a year.

A section of the wall is still missing and in the meantime, shiny new barbed wire closes the spaces between the cement blocks.

Two tractors cross the huge gate; one of them owned by an old acquaintance, M. M. tells us that his son’s killer (who was an officer in the Palestinian police and was killed in November 2022 in a struggle between drug dealers), was caught by Palestinian police. The killer fought against being arrested and was killed in a battle with the police. His death eases, somewhat, M.’s and his wife’s heavy grief. It was a form of closing the circle.

Location Description

Anin agricultural checkpoint

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located on the Separation Fence east of the Israeli community Mei Ami and close to the village of Anin in the West Bank. It is opened twice a week, morning and afternoon, for periods of time that are growing shorter Lith time. It is meant for Anin farmers whose olive groves have been separated from the village by the fence. Transit permits are only issued to those who can produce ownership documents for their caged-in land, and sometimes only to the head of the family or his widow, eldest son and children. At times the inheritors lose their right to tend to the family’s land. The permits are eked out and are re-issued only with difficulty. 55-year old persons may cross the checkpoint (into Israel) without special permits. During the olive harvest season (about one month around October) the checkpoint is open every day and more transit permits are issued. Names of persons eligible to cross are held in the soldiers’ computers. In July 2007, a sweeping instruction was issued according to which whoever does not return to the village through this checkpoint in the afternoon will be stripped of his transit permit when he shows up there next time. Since 2019, the checkpoint has not been allways locked with the seam-line zone gate (1 of 3 gates info-icon ), and the fence around it has been broken in several sites.

Tura-Shaked Checkpoint

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This is a fabric of life* checkpoint through which pedestrians, cabs and private cars (since 2008) pass to and from the West Bank and the Seam-line Zone to and from the industrical zone near the settler-colony Shaked, schools and kindergartens, and Jenin university campuses. The checkpoint is located between Tura village inside the West Bank and the village of Dahar Al Malah inside the enclave of the Seam-line Zone. It is opened twice a day, between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., and from 12 noon to 7 p.m. People crossing it (at times even kindergarten children) are inspected in a bungalow with a magnometer. Names of those allowed to cross it appear in a list held by the soldiers. Usually traffic here is scant.

fabric of life roads and checkpoints, as defined by the Terminals Authority in the Ministry of Defense (fabric of life is a laundered name that does not actually describe any kind of humanitarian purpose) are intended for Palestinians only. These roads and checkpoints have been built on lands appropriated from their Palestinian owners, including tunnels, bypass roads, and tracks passing under bridges. Thus traffic can flow between the West Bank and its separated parts that are not in any kind of territorial contiguity with it. Mostly there are no permanent checkpoint on these roads but rather ‘flying’ checkpoints, check-posts or surprise barriers. At Toura, a small (less than one dunam) and sleepy checkpoint has been established, which has filled up with the years with nearly .every means of supervision and surveillance that the Israeli military occupation has produced. (February 2020)

Mar-22-2022

Ruti Tuval

The locked gate at the Anin checkpoint

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Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint

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This checkpoint is located on the Separation Fence route, east of the Palestinian town of East Barta’a. The latter is the largest Palestinian community inside the seam-line zone (Barta’a Enclave) in the northern West Bank. Western Barta’a, inside Israel, is adjacent to it. The Checkpoint is open all week from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Since mid-May 2007, the checkpoint has been managed by a civilian security company subordinate to the Ministry of Defense. People permitted to cross through this checkpoint into and from the West Bank are residents of Palestinian communities inside the Barta’a Enclave as well as West Bank Palestinian residents holding transit permit. Jewish settlers from Hermesh and Mevo Dotan cross here without inspection. A large, modern terminal is active here with 8 windows for document inspection and biometric tests (eyes and fingerprints). Usually only one or two of the 8 windows are in operation. Goods, up to medium commercial size, may pass here from the West Bank into the Barta’a Enclave. A permanent registered group of drives who have been approved by the may pass with farm produce. When the administration of the checkpoint was turned over to a civilian security firm, the Ya’abad-Mevo Dotan Junction became a permanent checkpoint. . It is manned by soldiers who sit in the watchtower and come down at random to inspect vehicles and passengers (February 2020).